• A new LGBTQ+ forum is now being trialed and there have been changes made to the Support and Advice forum. To read more about these updates, click here.
  • Hey Trainers! Be sure to check out Corsola Beach, our newest section on the forums, in partnership with our friends at Corsola Cove! At the Beach, you can discuss the competitive side of the games, post your favorite Pokemon memes, and connect with other Pokemon creators!
  • Due to the recent changes with Twitter's API, it is no longer possible for Bulbagarden forum users to login via their Twitter account. If you signed up to Bulbagarden via Twitter and do not have another way to login, please contact us here with your Twitter username so that we can get you sorted.

Preview SM111: Arrival in Alola! Dripping Metal Panic!!

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Jan 12, 2008
Messages
7,301
Reaction score
5,940
Pronouns
  1. He/Him
Summary and staff list provided by Dephender. Airs March 3rd.
Satoshi and the others have finished their research projects at Poni Island and are taking a ship back to Melemele. However, a mysterious lifeform got on the ship with them, and once the ship arrives at port, the lifeform starts making mischief. Both Kojiro's beloved collection at the secret Rocket Gang base and the students' tools and the Pokémon School end up getting eaten.

Screenplay 米村正二 (Shōji Yonemura)
Storyboard 関野昌弘 (Masahiro Sekino)
Episode Director 関野昌弘 (Masahiro Sekino)
Animation Director 酒井裕未 (Hiromi Sakai)
Animation Director 柳原好貴 (Koki Yanagihara)
 
Interesting...

So the summary seems to imply that Ash and the classmates are still on Poni Island, which means the PokéGolf episode will also take place there.

Also, does anyone think there's a small chance that Ash might (maybe, hopefully) catch one of the Meltan.
 
Also, does anyone think there's a small chance that Ash might (maybe, hopefully) catch one of the Meltan.

I don't think so, honestly. Meltan doesn't seem like a very "Ash" Pokemon to me.

Truth be told, I wouldn't mind if Ash didn't catch any more Pokemon for the rest of the series -- as long as some of his older Pokemon are brought back for the League, of course.
 
I don't think so, honestly. Meltan doesn't seem like a very "Ash" Pokemon to me.

Truth be told, I wouldn't mind if Ash didn't catch any more Pokemon for the rest of the series -- as long as some of his older Pokemon are brought back for the League, of course.

I also wouldn't mind seeing some of Ash's older Pokémon, but not giving him a full team of Alolan Pokémon feels kind of insulting. It would be like...like... like having an evil team's leader not show up, even though the team appeared in the anime (which, from the looks of it, the anime could head there).

I was just throwing the idea out there, since we're starting to run out of Pokémon that Ash could catch for his 5th and 6th team slots (and even if they pull a Goodra moment with Poipole, he would still need a sixth one, so why not an adorable, very common (at least compared to the rest of them) and lovable/highly marketable Mythical Pokémon, of a type that Ash doesn't have, that evolves into a behemoth). Plus it could also justify Ash getting a Steelium Z after the Poni Grand Trial (that is, if he gets one).
 
Pay off! (or at least it better be)

Though it took 'em a while to get out of the ocean.

And just hope it goes better than Poipole (which wouldn't even take much...)

Not James’ collections! The poor guy’s been through enough already :(

At least the TRio are finally coming back.
As much as I've enjoyed the Poni Arc, it's felt weird not having them around for so long (never thought I'd hear myself say that!) o_O
 
I also wouldn't mind seeing some of Ash's older Pokémon, but not giving him a full team of Alolan Pokémon feels kind of insulting. It would be like...like... like having an evil team's leader not show up, even though the team appeared in the anime (which, from the looks of it, the anime could head there).

I was just throwing the idea out there, since we're starting to run out of Pokémon that Ash could catch for his 5th and 6th team slots (and even if they pull a Goodra moment with Poipole, he would still need a sixth one, so why not an adorable, very common (at least compared to the rest of them) and lovable/highly marketable Mythical Pokémon, of a type that Ash doesn't have, that evolves into a behemoth). Plus it could also justify Ash getting a Steelium Z after the Poni Grand Trial (that is, if he gets one).

Plumeria has appeared, so Guzma is all but confirmed.

None of Ash's rivals have more than three Pokemon, so there's no need for him to catch anymore or even use any of his old ones. The highest the league will go is 3v3 battles.

The only team change from here on out will be Torracat's evolution.
 
Plumeria has appeared, so Guzma is all but confirmed.

None of Ash's rivals have more than three Pokemon, so there's no need for him to catch anymore or even use any of his old ones. The highest the league will go is 3v3 battles.

The only team change from here on out will be Torracat's evolution.

I wouldn't put anything past the writers of Sun & Moon. Remember how they were hypeing up Team Rocket's Matori Matrix as the Big Bads of the last arc and look how poorly they handled that. Plus, in my logic, since all the other villainous team leaders debuted before the big crisis of their respective regions (and given that they've wasted any opportunity in the past 2+ years to debut Guzma), him not appearing is still possible (thou I wouldn't mind if they prove me wrong!).

As for the "Ash doesn't need to catch more Pokémon" thing, Hau and Ilima could still have six Pokémon (since they barely had enough time to showcase their full team), Gladion still has time to catch more and Kiawe (as some people have pointed out before in other threads) could still borrow some Pokémon if he really needs to. And even if they pull an Unova and have most of Ash's league battles be 3v3, I'm pretty sure that Kuk... I mean the Masked Royal will most likely challenge Ash to a full battle in order to make the Alola League a truly memorable experience (something that Kukui really wants to do, considering the new opening and past episodes).

And even if none of these things happen and we're stuck with a Unova type of deal where we have no full battles for the entire series... there's still the principle that matters. The principle that Ash catches at least 5 Pokémon in every region. It's basically tradition at this point, one that they wouldn't break. And as I said in my comparison, it would be low (even for them) to make Sun & Moon the first series where Ash doesn't have a team of native Pokémon. And that's one habit they really, REALLY shouldn't aim to break.
 
I wouldn't put anything past the writers of Sun & Moon. Remember how they were hypeing up Team Rocket's Matori Matrix as the Big Bads of the last arc and look how poorly they handled that. Plus, in my logic, since all the other villainous team leaders debuted before the big crisis of their respective regions (and given that they've wasted any opportunity in the past 2+ years to debut Guzma), him not appearing is still possible (thou I wouldn't mind if they prove me wrong!).

As for the "Ash doesn't need to catch more Pokémon" thing, Hau and Ilima could still have six Pokémon (since they barely had enough time to showcase their full team), Gladion still has time to catch more and Kiawe (as some people have pointed out before in other threads) could still borrow some Pokémon if he really needs to. And even if they pull an Unova and have most of Ash's league battles be 3v3, I'm pretty sure that Kuk... I mean the Masked Royal will most likely challenge Ash to a full battle in order to make the Alola League a truly memorable experience (something that Kukui really wants to do, considering the new opening and past episodes).

And even if none of these things happen and we're stuck with a Unova type of deal where we have no full battles for the entire series... there's still the principle that matters. The principle that Ash catches at least 5 Pokémon in every region. It's basically tradition at this point, one that they wouldn't break. And as I said in my comparison, it would be low (even for them) to make Sun & Moon the first series where Ash doesn't have a team of native Pokémon. And that's one habit they really, REALLY shouldn't aim to break.

Like I said, if they didn't plan to have Guzma appear, they wouldn't have even had Plumeria appear.

What's the point of giving him more Pokemon now when anything he catches this late in the game will have less screentime than Palpitoad?
 
Last edited:
Like I said, if they didn't plan to have Guzma appear, they wouldn't have even had Plumeria appear.

What's the point of giving him more Pokemon now when anything he catches this late in the game will have less screentime than Palpitoad?

Again... it's the principle that matters. Do you really want Sun & Moon to be remembered (among other things) as that series where Ash couldn't even catch a full team of Pokémon?

And again, if the writers intend to have Poipole return, giving Ash one new Pokémon ASAP would give them enough time to have its personality fleshed out and it would also give Ash a full team. Would it really be that terrible if they gave Ash at least one more catch (especially in an anime whose slogan is "Gotta catch 'em all" and the main character's name is a pun on said slogan)?
 
Again... it's the principle that matters. Do you really want Sun & Moon to be remembered (among other things) as that series where Ash couldn't even catch a full team of Pokémon?

And again, if the writers intend to have Poipole return, giving Ash one new Pokémon ASAP would give them enough time to have its personality fleshed out and it would also give Ash a full team. Would it really be that terrible if they gave Ash at least one more catch (especially in an anime whose slogan is "Gotta catch 'em all" and the main character's name is a pun on said slogan)?

He caught 9 in BW and that's considered the worst series, so I don't think people really care about how many Pokemon Ash caches. And the gotta catch 'em all slogan hasn't been a thing in over a decade.
 
He caught 9 in BW and that's considered the worst series, so I don't think people really care about how many Pokemon Ash caches. And the gotta catch 'em all slogan hasn't been a thing in over a decade.

... what does Ash catching too many Pokémon have to do with Best Wishes being "the worst series"? You do realize these things are unrelated? Now, while I personally liked Best Wishes, I can acknowledge that (prior to Sun & Moon) it was the weakest of all the Pokémon series and there are reasons for that. The story was weak when compared to the games (which have the best story in any Pokémon game to date), some of the things that happen have no relevance later on (such as certain characters returning), the travelling companions were annoying (thou that's more on the subjective side and I actually enjoyed Cilan and Iris), Ash suffered from bad characterization (sound familiar), it had one of the worst Gym battles ever (Nimbasa Gym), it felt like a soft reboot compared to the other series, the original Team Rocket vs Team Plasma plot (which made the slow build up to it feel pointless), having to many filler episodes and (there are more, I'm sure, but this is among the most imporant) having THE WORST rival and the WORST conclusion to a Pokémon League arc.

But Ash catching to many Pokémon? That wasn't a problem because, despite having to juggle a lot of Pokémon, the writers of that series were still able to (for the most part) give each of Ash's Pokémon enough screen time and development (or at the very least a personality). If the writers of that series were able to do this (for most of Ash's Pokémon, at least), why can't the writers of the current series develop ONE, SINGLE POKÉMON? Even Gible, who was introduced very late in Diamond & Pearl, was develop as a member of Ash's team prior to the league.

EDIT: Also, Ash caught 6 Pokémon in Sinnoh (which is more than he needed for a full team). Does that make it a bad series all of a sudden? Or how about his adventures in Kanto, in the OG, where he caught... 38 Pokémon (not counting Pikachu)? Should the original series also be considered bad because Ash had too many Pokémon (which, by the way, were also well developed or, at the very least, had personalities (most of them, anyways))? Just trying to understand the logic behind your correlation.
 
Last edited:
But Ash catching to many Pokémon? That wasn't a problem because, despite having to juggle a lot of Pokémon, the writers of that series were still able to (for the most part) give each of Ash's Pokémon enough screen time and development (or at the very least a personality). If the writers of that series were able to do this (for most of Ash's Pokémon, at least), why can't the writers of the current series develop ONE, SINGLE POKÉMON? Even Gible, who was introduced very late in Diamond & Pearl, was develop as a member of Ash's team prior to the league.

Ash catching too many Pokemon was most certainly a factor in BW's reception. Palpitoad is infamous for being the most neglected Pokemon ever, and Boldore didn't fare much better.
 
Ash catching too many Pokemon was most certainly a factor in BW's reception. Palpitoad is infamous for being the most neglected Pokemon ever, and Boldore didn't fare much better.
A) That's why I said "for the most part". I'm well aware that certain Pokémon that were with Ash during Unova didn't get enough... exposure.
B) Even if the fact that Ash caught too many Pokémon somehow played a hand in BW's reception, it's still a small factor compared to the ones I mentioned.
C) I'm not asking for Ash to catch the entire Alolan Pokédex. I'm just saying he should catch at least one (two at most) Pokémon. It shouldn't be that hard to develop a single Pokémon (or at least give it some personality).
D) What about the other series I mentioned in my edit? How were they able to do something with the 6+ Pokémon that Ash caught in the past series-es, but they can't develop ONE Pokémon in 20+ episodes this time? Again, they managed to do something with Gible in DP, so why can't they do something now?
 
I also wouldn't mind seeing some of Ash's older Pokémon, but not giving him a full team of Alolan Pokémon feels kind of insulting. It would be like...like... like having an evil team's leader not show up, even though the team appeared in the anime (which, from the looks of it, the anime could head there).

Trust me, I'd love it if Poipole came back. At this point, though, I think that catching two new Pokemon and giving them rushed storylines would be even more insulting than just not giving Ash a full team. Besides, Professor Oak's lab doesn't have an infinite amount of space. Ash not catching a full team this time around would put a lot less pressure on the guy.

Also, Guzma is coming. There's literally no way he's not showing up at some point. Plumeria's appearance and the Golisopod merchandise are pretty much proof that we'll see Guzma at some point.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom